Once upon a time in the mid-2000s, a just-then-emerging Seth Rogen and an altogether-too-well-known Tom Cruise met to discuss working together on a project.
But the meeting ended with Tom Cruise trying to bring both Rogen and director Judd Apatow into the Scientology fold, according to Rogen.
He shared the story while on The Howard Stern Show to promote his new memoir, Yearbook.
According to Rogen, Cruise said "Big Pharma" was involved in a scheme to make him look crazy about Scientology, which then lead him into asking Rogen for 20 minutes so he could try to convert the Jewish man to Scientology.
"If you let me just tell you what it was really about … you would say, 'No fucking way. No. F**king. Way,'" Cruise reportedly said to Rogen.
The Tom Cruise revelations keep coming. On Twitter, journalist Yashar Ali posted a couple of pages taken from Seth Rogen\u2019s new book, which claims that Cruise said he was the target of a Big Pharma conspiracy to make him look insane when he was trying to promote #Scientology.— Tony Ortega (@Tony Ortega) 1620762939
In 2005, when I was selling Dianetics books to the public, I was asked to keep track of all Tom Cruise comments by public. I was embarrassed by his public display and yet they were counting it as positive PR. It seemed odd to me even when I was \u201cin\u201d.— KH2N (@KH2N) 1620828715
Claiming that a Big Pharma conspiracy is trying to make you sound insane, sounds insane.\n\nClearly that's a realisation that Tom Cruise is yet to have.— Interesting times (@Interesting times) 1620771436
Is... is he saying he was on psych drugs at the time? I think his friend Dave might have some views on that!— ChrisO (@ChrisO) 1620763068
Rogen then said he was intrigued, against his better judgment, but Judd Apatow stepped in to cut Cruise off.
"I'm generally a weak-willed, weak-minded person," Rogen said.
"If they got him, what chance do I got? Thank god Judd was like, 'Ah, I think we're good. Let's just talk about movies.' Oof, dodged that bullet."
Tom Cruise makes Tom Cruise look insane. Tom "giving back his golden globes due to HFP ethics" when he fanatically supports the unethical Scientology cult is hilarious.— Just A Girl (@Just A Girl) 1620771053
Tom Cruise does enough to make himself look whacko— Nikki Simi (@Nikki Simi) 1620801156
Tom's got that market already cornered.— \ud83d\ude37Get Vaxed\ud83d\udc89 (@\ud83d\ude37Get Vaxed\ud83d\udc89) 1620763657
He doesn\u2019t need big pharma to do that— Sam Thomas \ud83d\udc99 (@Sam Thomas \ud83d\udc99) 1620768975
He is insane so there\u2019s that— Nancy Q (@Nancy Q) 1620768791
This isn't the first collaborator Cruise has tried to turn to Scientology.
His Mission Impossible: 2 co-star Thandie Newton said Cruise sent her a pro-Scientology book and that she briefly considered poking around.
"I was curious, because it's like, 'Wow, if it's going to attract people, powerful, high-profile people, there's got to be some glue that sticks this sh*t together,'" she said.
"Didn't find any."
Make him look insane?pic.twitter.com/Kwouaddg1H— John Mongo Tooz (@John Mongo Tooz) 1620767732
Dianetics makes strange bedfellows--Tom Cruise and Farrakhan & the NOI— Jason (@Jason) 1620763314
Well I guess Big Pharma succeeded.— Terry Fuson (@Terry Fuson) 1620779211
If the shoe fits....— Erin Darling (@Erin Darling) 1620771398
pic.twitter.com/9iyrUsHrAs— lazyone (@lazyone) 1620773301
Let us all be thankful for the Judd Apatows in our lives.
We may have had a slow descent into a pyramid scheme without their level-headed presence.